To be A Shinobi
by Frozen Obsidian
Summary: Being a shinobi has its ups and downs. Various scenes about the Rookie 12 of Konoha. Mostly humour.


I'm way too addicted to this 50 words 50 sentences thing, I tell you. This one sort-of rambles, but I generally like the whole ficlet. But gah, this took so long to finish, especially numbers 40-50, inspiration pretty much deserted me at that point, but hallelujah, I'm done!

**Summary**: Being a shinobi has its ups and downs. Various scenes about the Rookie 12 of Konoha. Mostly humour.

**Disclaimer**: Naruto has never belonged to me, does not belong to me now and will never belong to me. No matter how much I want it to. Damn.

**To be a Shinobi**

**1. Snow**

Shinobi they were, and they knew it; they had stopped being just children the day they made their first kill, but sometimes it was easy to forget that, when the snow was falling and a snowball fight was just _begging_ to happen.

**2. Pure**

It was pure, utter idiocy, Sakura decided, as Lee and Naruto declared their love for her yet again, but it was idiocy she was used to, and possibly even idiocy she had grown to like.

**3. Darkness**

The party had been going on full-swing for hours, when the lights went off and they were plunged in darkness, and that was when things turned messy, Sakura and Ino screamed that whoever was groping them had better stop before they broke his arm, Naruto cackled maniacally and all in all, hell broke loose over Konoha.

**4. Swarm**

Neji and Sasuke were infamous in Konoha, especially with the female population, as the most handsome shinobi of the Village, which, decided the two, despite the few perks of the title (ego, ego, ego), it wasn't worth the constant swarm of the vicious breed, Fan girls.

**5. Bee**

Sakura was a bee, a seemingly harmless little thing (to a degree), who would explode in the fiercest and most painful tempers ever, as the male populace soon learned.

**6. Yellow**

Shikamaru wasn't really all too fond of the colour yellow, to be honest; it was too bright and well, troublesome, as all his associations with blonds had taught him… Naruto and Ino were more than troublesome in his book.

**7. Honey**

Tsunade tried really hard to not let her anger get the best of her as she surveyed what Naruto had just done; feathers, rope and glitter were involved; the thought immediately flew out the window when a huge vat of honey was dumped down, adding to the chaos, the brat was going to pay.

**8. Gold**

Naruto had been rather uninterested in the mission Tsunade was explaining, it was all so _boring_, escort, bodyguard and return, and then Tsunade had mentioned the payment, and he was dragging Sakura and Sasuke along yelling, "C'mon, let's take that ass over to Lightning Country!"

**9. Precious**

Uchiha's were notoriously possessive, especially with things they dubbed as precious, and nothing would stop them from going after your ass and skewering it if you messed with it, as Naruto soon found out, not that he paid any heed to the first few warning burns and cuts, in fact, he took greater delight in finding things that Sasuke was possessive about and hiding them.

**10. Jewel**

Hyuuga eyes were like pearls, white and smooth and valuable, it made sense that they guarded their secrets so jealously, but sometimes, they overstepped the limits, and not even their all-seeing eyes could see how to remedy it.

**11. Pretty**

Sasuke considered himself to be a pretty tolerant guy (ignore the eye-rolls and snorts from the general populace) but he was going to kill the next drunkard who came up and hit on him and especially if they was stupid enough to call him _pretty_, it didn't help that Naruto was laughing his ass off (he would kill the idiot later); why'd they have to come to this gay bar in the first place!

**12. Dull**

Everything dulled and faded, given time, that much Neji knew, he was no naïve fool after all, but he sometimes clung to the hope that maybe something good would come and stay, stay until the day he died.

**13. Brittle**

Bones were brittle in a way, mused Naruto in one of more morbid moods, sure they were hard and stuff, but it all didn't matter when it finally bent too much, and then _snap_, it was broken.

**14. Broke**

Kiba was flat broke, Shino knew that much, he had been friends with the Inuzuka long enough to know the warning signs of when Kiba would try to rope him into treating to not only Kiba himself to lunch, but to pay for Hinata's in Kiba's stead, but like every other time, Kiba would fail, and Shino would pay for his _own_ lunch and Hinata's (who was blissfully unaware), then laugh internally as Kiba was forced to wash dishes.

**15. Piece**

It was hard sometimes, to try and fit together the different pieces of life when you were a shinobi, that you had to find some kind of coping mechanism, and that was generally why most ninja, especially the powerful ones, were considered quite insane in their own right.

**16. Cake**

It was the usual birthday party, as held by the Rookie 12 and their sensei's, but this one was different as it was Lee's birthday, and therefore Gai was in one of his crazier moods, so it was not much a surprise when the cake turned out to be a 12 foot sculpture of a sunset with the words "Youthful Forever Lee!" emblazoned across.

**17. Cream**

They were the cream of the crop, the crème de la crème of Konoha's younger generation of Shinobi, Tsunade knew, but god, couldn't they stop being so bloody annoying for once?

**18. Whipped**

All the male shinobi of the Rookie 12 tried to deny it, some even believed themselves after a while, but it was blindingly obvious to the general populace that all of them were whipped, even Kiba and Shino were completely henpecked by harmless looking Hinata, she could get them to do practically anything with just a shy smile.

**19. Lash**

Naruto was complaining about how the stubborn idiot (AKA their target) was refusing to cooperate and give any information whatsoever, Sasuke was fuming silently in the corner, his thoughts matching the blonds, both of them gaped when their target promptly told his tale when Sakura _just_ _bat her eyelashes_.

**20. Eyes**

Shikamaru considered Ino troublesome, as she often nagged him about how lazy he was, how he should do more, etcetera etcetera, but he did have to admit quietly to himself, that she did have pretty blue eyes.

**21. Blind**

Many people who didn't know about the Hyuuga eyes thought that Hinata and Neji were blind, the two generally didn't bother to correct this false assumption, it was so much more fun for the other guy to think that he just had his ass handed to him by a blind person.

**22. Love**

Quite a few people puzzled themselves over what did Shikamaru like to do; he seemed too lazy to have a hobby; those that knew him snorted and rolled their eyes, they knew quite well that he had two loves, sleeping and shogi.

**23. Hate**

In early days, when they were just starting out as Shinobi, Naruto would regularly proclaim his undying love for his beloved Sakura-chan, Sakura would just as regularly proclaim her hatred for the blond-haired idiot; but deep down, Sakura kind of liked the attention.

**24. Indifference**

Sasuke had a particular way of looking at someone, that made the person feel as small as dirt; as their rather pompous client soon found out, when Sasuke glared at him with something not quite hate, but conveyed the message that you weren't important enough for someone like _him_ to hate, but you were instead, something irritating like a piece of lint; the client peed his pants and Naruto burst out laughing.

**25. Care**

Hinata was a sweet little thing, timid and kind, but only Kiba really knew how very dangerous she could be, as the time when she _accidentally_ kicked him in the nuts twice, set a swarm of bees on him and had him stuck in a very thick marsh (all accidental, of course), after he made a comment that Neji looked like a girl; Hinata smiles serenely whenever this incident is brought up, but apparently, the Hyuuga protectiveness ran both ways.

**26. Kind**

No one really knew what Shino thought most of the time, aside from Shino himself that is, but Kiba and Hinata thought that maybe they were coming close to a sort-of-understanding between them; but occasionally Shino would do something that completely defied their carefully thought out definition of him, and the two would just sigh and come to the decision that Shino was simply one of a kind.

**27. Lady**

Most of the time, Ino didn't usually look like a proper, gentle, lady, most would even go the extent of calling her a slut, in terms of dressing, but most would also agree that when Ino really got it into her mind to look upright, proper and ladylike, no one could be more persuasive in a subtle, you-never-know-it-until-you-have-a-knife-at-your-throat way.

**28. Lord**

Taki Hakagure had always fancied himself a Lord (He was but a mere rich merchant really), and generally pounded his influence down on the hired help, dictating that he be called Lord Hakagure at all times; he made a grave mistake when he tried that on Neji, when the Hyuuga had been hired for a quick job, it would be quite some time before the merchant would be able to say anything.

**29. Royal**

The Konoha younger generation generally looked liked a band of messy ruffians (excluding a select few), but the female population almost (actually they did, but they liked to pretend they didn't) spout a series of nosebleeds and squeals when the male portion of the Rookies arrived, fully clad in formal garb and looking positively like royalty, and very hot royalty it was (Even if they did look disgruntled).

**30. Blue**

Lee had always been a great fan of the colour green, not so much of the colour blue, but when Tenten was dressed in a full-length azure gown (which did not really suit her), asked him if it made her look fat, he wisely said that it did not, and made her look very nice really, after all, dense though Lee might be sometimes, he knew well enough to _never _mess with Tenten when she was PMS'ing.

**31. Ice**

"An iced lemonade, please," requested Sakura with a beaming smile at the waiter, who blushed crimson at the gaggle of pretty girls smiling at him, when Ino grinned flirtatiously at him, the teenager promptly fainted in pure euphoria; Tenten, Sakura, Ino and Hinata burst out giggling as they got yet another innocent-esque waiter to faint.

**32. Cool**

Naruto had been wracking his brains trying to figure out what exactly made girls flock to Sasuke, before finally sighing in defeat and asking Sakura; Sakura bashed him on the head (multiple times), before saying that Sasuke was that handsome, that skilled and that _cool_; Naruto still didn't get it.

**33. Stereotypes**

Blonds, you see, had a stereotype of being ditzy and stupid, but Naruto and Ino though quite bright in their own way, did not help the cause of erasing the stereotype; Naruto was too impulsive and prank-loving to _not _do stupid things sometimes, whereas Ino just liked smiling at the general populace, vague look on her face, the people decided because she was a bimbo, but in reality, it was because Ino was laughing at them on the inside, and doing her best not to burst out into mad cackles of laughter; people could be so stupid!

**34. Dumb**

Tenten was quite nice really, and relatively patient, but she was going to skewer her two teammates if they didn't stop being so dumb and embarrassed; god, was it really that hard to wrap their minds around the fact that she had hit puberty and now had cleavage?

**35. Smart**

No one actually believed Choji when he told them that Shikamaru was a genius; how could somebody so lazy be super-smart; but then Choji sighed and knew they would eat their words if the day ever came where they were idiotic enough to challenge Shikamaru to a battle or a game of shogi.

**36. Brain**

Sakura slapped his forehead, Naruto fell down comically and Sasuke raised an eyebrow; Team 7 had seen a lot in the line of weird villains, but this one took the cake; they were being attacked by a giant brain in an antiseptic tank of all things!

**37. Dead**

Shinobi were supposed to be emotionless, indifferent to death, at least that's what they were told and taught; but it was so much harder than just thinking it when the blood was on your hands and the body in front you cold and lifeless.

**38. Live**

No one on the outside could see it or even think it, but everyone of the experienced shinobi (even the Rookie 12) had contemplated suicide at least once, but then they'd see their friends or maybe see the village, and remember that there _was_ something to keep living for.

**39. Oblivion**

Hinata was bright and sharp, if shy, but she had been rather sheltered by the Hyuuga household on certain things, so when Kiba turned crimson and red whenever she went near him and smiled, she was oblivious and asked him if was having a fever, should he go see a medic nin?

**40. Stop**

"Stop!" shouted Lee, as Neji turned to leave, Neji turned around, facing his teammate, "Yea?" Lee slipped into a fighting stance, "Fight me."

**41. Forever**

In the early days of Team 7, Sakura knew she was the weakest, that Sasuke was miles better, and that even the idiot Naruto was better than her by far; sometimes, she wondered if she should even continue being a ninja, because it felt like she'd be weak forever, _useless._

**42. Because**

The younger generation of Shinobi had their own tact when answering personal questions, some blurted out the answers cheerfully, some glared at you, some gave a non-commital shrug, but one question always garnered the same answer, "Why'd you become a Shinobi?", it always was _because_, and left hanging just like that, some questions were _too_ personal to answer, espiecially if you were a stranger; the only exception was Naruto, everyone knew why he wanted to be a Shinobi (to be _recognized_, to protect).

**43. Kick**

Really, you'd think that after knowing Sakura for so long, Naruto would learn that doing/saying anything remotely perverted would earn him a punch or a kick to the face; but Naruto still persisted in his perverted ways… Sakura seriously considered that Naruto was possibly masochistic.

**44. Kill**

Tsunade was going to kill Naruto, she decided, there were certain things she could forgive the blond haired boy for, some things she would yell at him for, but the one thing that would make her kill him, was steal her sake, and he had just done that, so, yeah, today was going to be the last day of Uzumaki Naruto.

**45. Bleed**

It was generally known to all that Naruto had absorbed much of Jiraiya's perverted side while they were training (though Naruto's perverted tendencies had shown much earlier… Sexy no Jutsu anyone?) so it wasn't all that surprising when blood erupted from his nose at the sight of the girl taking off her shirt, though it did earn him a rather hard punch from Sakura.

**46. Empty**

Naruto had opened his food cupboard that morning, only to discover that, horror of horrors, he was out of ramen; and that was how the supermarket found themselves running out of stock of ramen before the clock struck noon.

**47. Full**

Sakura tried really, really hard not to kill their client, but god, could he be any more full of himself? But when he commented on how he had asked for a strong ninja, and not a _female; _well, she really couldn't be blamed for demonstrating just how strong she was, even if he would have to find a new house to live in.

**48. Food**

He was, Shino decided, never going to let Kiba pack for them on long-term missions ever again; because now here they were, 50 miles away from the nearest civilization, and with no food at all.

**49. Strength**

Tsunade sometimes wondered, what exactly made that particular generation of shinobi so strong and insane, but she supposed, she could always blame it on the water and their teachers.

**50. Fall**

"Even the greatest will fall one day," Neji had said, one day out of the blue, and Lee just looked at him and replied, "But you just have to get up again, with the power of youth, don't you?"


End file.
